HistoSonics Grabs $54M Series C

The round was led by Varian Medical Systems, Inc., the global leader in radiation therapy and oncology solutions, and included healthcare investors Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC), Lumira Ventures, Venture Investors, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, as well as participation from existing investors. The financing also included robotics pioneer Fred Moll, MD, founder of Intuitive Surgical and former Chairman and CEO of Auris Health. HistoSonics plans to use the proceeds of the financing to complete key regulatory and commercial milestones and expand development of its breakthrough platform.

"We believe that the HistoSonics platform offers a unique solution and significant promise to treat patients with a number of different diseases across global markets and care settings," commented Greg Sorensen, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Varian and new HistoSonics Board of Directors member. Also joining the company's Board as part of the financing are Gerry Brunk, Managing Director of Lumira Ventures, and an appointee from JJDC.

HistoSonics' non-invasive platform, Robotically Assisted Sonic Therapy (RASTSM), combines advanced robotics and imaging with proprietary sensing technology to deliver personalized treatments with unparalleled precision and control, and uses the science of histotripsy and focused sound energy to generate pressures strong enough to liquify and completely destroy targeted tissues at sub-cellular levels. The company believes that the novel mechanism of action of their proprietary technology provides significant advantages to patients, including the ability of the treatment site to recover and heal quickly, as well as provides physicians the unique ability to monitor the destruction of tissue under continuous real-time visualization and control, unlike any modality that exists today.

"We are very excited to be adding this group of experienced investment partners who share in our vision and mission," said President and CEO Mike Blue. "RAST will offer transformative change for both patients and physicians and will help overcome many of the major limitations and side effects of today's cancer therapies. It has also shown great promise to work synergistically with other therapies and platforms, such as drug and immunotherapy, a big focus of our preclinical work, as well as with other surgical robotic platforms. We are confident that RAST will provide an entirely new experience for patients and physicians, as well as a more cost-effective alternative that better aligns with value-based healthcare initiatives, and we are thrilled to have such a strong syndicate joining us on this journey."

The new financing follows a year of impressive progress at HistoSonics. The company achieved significant development milestones and generated compelling early clinical evidence, as well as continued to add deep domain experience and industry leadership to its team. HistoSonics was also recognized as one of the most promising start-ups with a top 10 ranking in The Observer's "Top 20 Flyover Tech."

"Venture Investors has been an investor in HistoSonics from the start," added Jim Adox, Chairman of the Board and Managing Director at Venture Investors LLC, "and it is incredibly exciting to see the progress we have made over the past several years. The vision of the company from the very beginning has been to develop a true platform that will revolutionize how patients are treated across a broad spectrum of diseases, including some of the most significant cancers, and it is very gratifying to now see the tremendous advancement of the system as it nears market launch."

About HistoSonics

HistoSonics is a venture-backed medical device company developing a non-invasive robotic platform and novel beam therapy, Robotically Assisted Sonic Therapy (RASTSM). RAST uses the science of histotripsy and the pressure created by focused sound energy to liquify and destroy targeted tissue, including diseased tissue and tumors, at sub-cellular levels. The company's new platform delivers personalized, tissue-specific treatments with unparalleled precision and control, and without the undesirable side effects of many of today's interventional and surgical modalities. Histotripsy was developed at the University of Michigan and exclusively licensed to HistoSonics. The company is led by a team of experienced domain experts and industry leaders with offices in Ann Arbor, MI, and Minneapolis, MN.